Senior UK Judge Attacks US For Guantanamo Detentions Without Trial

'Monstrous US justice' attacked by law lord. Very, very strong words about the Guantanamo detentions from a normally reserved senior English judge: “By denying the prisoners the right to raise challenges in a court about their alleged status and treatment, the United States government is in breach of the minimum standards of customary international law.”

Lord Steyn also called the proposed military commissions “a stain on United States justice” and predicted that they would be regarded as “kangaroo courts,” which he defined as an “irregular tribunal which makes a mockery of justice.”

One of Britain's most senior judges condemned the American courts last night for a “monstrous failure of justice” by refusing to rule on the claims of Taliban suspects held without trial at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Lord Steyn, a serving law lord, said the United States was acting illegally by holding the men without trial since their transfer from Afghanistan early last year.

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Lord Steyn, 71, the third most senior law lord, said that under English law the writ of habeas corpus would protect citizens and foreigners. That was consistent with human rights law, which Lord Steyn concluded, the US had broken.